“Suspicious” Four-Alarm Fire Destroys Business

Investigators are looking into what they are calling a suspicious four-alarm fire in Brooklyn that gutted one business and injured at least one person. The New York City Fire Department says flames broke out around 4:15 a.m. and quickly spread inside a one story commercial building located at 1716 West 6th Street in Gravesend. At one point, firefighters were ordered out of the building as flames filled the entire structure, causing the roof to collapse. Witnesses at the scene tell NY1 the building houses Dalmazio event planners, a family-owned business that’s been around for at least 10 years. Read More: NY1

Amid ongoing tensions over the New York City Police Department’s monitoring of Muslim communities in the Northeast, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly met Tuesday with local Muslim leaders who praised the surveillance programs’ effects on security. Saying to represent all five boroughs, the half-dozen Muslims who met with Kelly said the police commissioner plans to further reach out to local Muslims and will visit mosques across the city. Read More: NY1

Channel 4 booting anchorwoman Sue Simmons after 32 years

After more than three decades, WNBC/Channel 4 is tossing anchorwoman Sue Simmons overboard. Last week, the station gave her the bad news that her contract would not be renewed — and come June, she’s history. Simmons, who has won four Emmys since starting at Channel 4 in 1980 and is the top-paid anchorwoman at any local station in the country, would happily have stayed. It was entirely NBC’s decision to break up the city’s best-known local anchor pair, Simmons and Chuck Scarborough. Read More: New York Post

A call girl who once worked for Manhattan “Madam” Anna Gristina said her boss had well-placed law-enforcement sources tipping her off about upcoming brothel busts, which is how the operation remained up and running for so long. Irma Nici, who has previously claimed to have slept with David Beckham and Eliot Spitzer, worked for Gristina for six months in 2002 and told The Post that the mother of four “laughed” when other escort services went down. Read More: New York Post